Grey Still Life

As I look at this painting, I can almost hear Dad's voice telling me to ”Look at the spaces between.”  He didn't attempt to teach me anything about painting when I became an art student, but this statement stuck in my consciousness, just as “when something looks wrong in a painting, it is often the thing next to it you need to look at.”

Dad gave me it as a 21^st birthday present. To me it represents “the rightness” of a composition, a stillness ( literally), and a perfect balance of tones. It emanates a sense of peace, that …

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As I look at this painting, I can almost hear Dad's voice telling me to ”Look at the spaces between.”  He didn't attempt to teach me anything about painting when I became an art student, but this statement stuck in my consciousness, just as “when something looks wrong in a painting, it is often the thing next to it you need to look at.”

Dad gave me it as a 21^st birthday present. To me it represents “the rightness” of a composition, a stillness ( literally), and a perfect balance of tones. It emanates a sense of peace, that I appreciate in very many  of his paintings.

The composer Gordon Jacob who lived locally used to say half jokingly ‘When in doubt, write a fugue.’ Dad used to say the equivalent for him was ‘When in doubt, paint a still life.’ They crop up at various times throughout his life like moments where he pauses for thought.”